Happy Birthday! | "Three Sentences" (S1E13)
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On today's episode of That Was Us, we'll be discussing Season 1, Episode 13, Three Sentences. Jack and Rebecca try to throw Kevin, Kate, and Randall three separate birthday parties. Randall helps William fulfill a lifelong dream. Kevin realizes who the love of his life is. And Kate goes to a weight loss camp.

- Greetings and salutations, friends. - Hello. - How we doing today? - Here we are. - Good day to you, sir. - Good day to me as well. - Good to see you both. - Good to see, always great, Amanda Lee. Always great, Christopher.

It's always good to be seeing and talking to our fans who are hopefully rating, reviewing, subscribing to our YouTube channel, to wherever they get their podcasts and helping us spread the word so that we can keep bringing you these episodes that we love to make. We do, we do. We want to keep doing this. There's all kinds of story that's going on. I'll save the reveal of the three sentences and where it comes from, but let's just talk about in the past...

Jack and Rebecca preparing for the kids' birthdays. I think they were having a little bit of amorous time to themselves at the beginning of the episode. Sure. And then there's a barging in from the twins, from Kate and from Kevin, saying, we want our own birthday.

birthday parties this year. And we've just seen a montage of beautiful times of celebrations for Jack and the kids that like are family friendly. There's pin the tail on the donkey. There's a special sort of three layer birthday cake that Rebecca makes every year. Yeah. Until I had watched, when I watched this one, it, it,

just reminded me, like it really slipped my mind. I'm like, oh right, this is also Jack's birthday. - Yeah. - It slipped my mind until the very end of the episode. - Yeah. - Oh. - Like, right. - Yeah, because Jack is not thinking about himself ever. - No. - He's like, what can I do for my kids? - How can you when you got three of them to worry about? - Yeah, three. It was honestly not until the end of the episode when the kids present him with the banner of like, happy birthday dad. - That's right. - And I was like,

It's this man's birthday too, and he's been running around like a chicken with his head cut off just trying to make things right. And not only are they going to have three separate birthdays, but it's going to be three separate birthdays in the same house. Yes, three separate themes. Which I want this entire episode to just be Mandy talking about what those days, multiple days on set were like.

with how many children? 25? - Many children. - 30 children? - Many, many children. - Before having any children of your own too. It's just like, there's a lot of children. - Which for anybody who doesn't know like how making a TV show works, when you have 30 kids on set,

You also have 30 parents on set. Yes. Like it grows, like the number of people. And you are under a time constraint. Sure. To make these episodes because these children also are required to

To be educated. Yes. This is true. Rightly so. They have a teacher there. Yep. There is a mandate on how much they can work, how long they can work before they need certain breaks, obviously, which makes total sense. So yes, the confines of shooting an episode that has many children in it makes it exponentially more difficult. You now legally have to feed them. Yes. You have to feed all of them. You have to give them water. Yes.

I mean, different times. They're allowed to go to the bathroom. It's different times. There is an adage in the business about sort of like kids and animals, right? In terms of like... The show thumbs its nose at all. Thumbs its nose. So there is like the unanticipated that comes with kids and animals because you can't...

always get them to do exactly what you want them to do when you want them to do it. But there is a delightful spontaneity that also sort of keeps you on your toes. - Yes. - Right? - It's magic. - I had wondered, and obviously this comes later, but I had wondered if Dan had something against us when Toby and Kate got a dog. I was like, okay, now there's a dog who also has to act in these scenes? - Yeah.

I digress. So anyway, they come in, they want their own birthday party. Kev's is, the theme is the Princess Bride. My favorite movie growing up.

- Yo, hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father, prepare to die. That joint is off the chain. I love it. And so I didn't even blink an eye. I was like, yeah, Princess Bride is a good party to do, right? Kate wants a Madonna themed party. And then Randall comes walking in and they're like, hey man, do you wanna have like your own birthday party? And he goes in the cutest way, can I magician? - Yeah.

- Cutest. - He's like, "Yeah, I'm in." And he walks right back out. Randall's like, "I got grades. I got things to do." - Yeah. - "You get this party together." - Not concerned with a birthday party. - "We'll be totally fine." - Yeah. - Right? So seeing you guys put this together, it reminds me, 'cause I have a son who's about to have a 13th birthday party like tomorrow, right? - At your house? - No. - Where are you going?

- My wife is renting a house in Malibu. - Oh, 13. - So he's having a 13th birthday party that Brown could never have conceived of in his life. - What'd you do for your 13th birthday? - Had a sleepover at the house.

My brother and sister helped make the lasagna, which was my favorite food at that time. And we just kicked it real hard. - What'd you do for your 13th birthday? - I don't even remember. - Played a sold out stadium. - No, no, no, no. - Milwaukee, Wisconsin. - That was way, way, way before that. Definitely like, yeah, a special dinner or something and maybe a sleepover. - A sleepover is like a big deal for me. - I think I had a, I think it was 13. I had a limousine.

Oh, okay. It was like a big, it was like a thing. And I was a competitive tennis player growing up, right? And so it was essentially, I didn't have a social life outside of tennis. So it was just all my tennis friends. It was my first birthday party with boys and girls. Okay, go ahead. That I can remember. That wasn't just like, you have to invite everybody from your class. Right. And we all went, we all went to Chevy's.

Oh, sure. Remember Chevy's? Bro, sizzling on the grill. That's right. Come on. That's right. But there was, I mean, there's balloon animals, sombreros. I mean, probably pretty problematic. And then we went to see, we went to see. Here we go. Went to the movies. Yes. And we all went and saw City Slickers 2. Oh.

City Slickers is a great movie. Yeah. Wow. That's a good birthday, bro. That's a great birthday. It was. It was a good birthday. I hope my kids is as memorable as yours. That's pretty awesome. Sounds like it will be. So, okay, anyway. The parties are happening. And what I am sort of struck by is...

is this idea that you want to make sure that everybody's having the best time possible, right? As parents, you want to make sure that the special moments are special, right? And so you see the Madonnas are kicking it. They're having a great time. Kev's having a great time with the Princess Bride thing. And we go out to Randall's party and there's like three people there. - Including the magician. - Including the magician.

And Randall's kicking it. But they're like, why is there nobody at his party? So they bring Randall over. And they're like, hey, man, you having a good time? He's like, yeah. Yeah, the magician's really good. I love doing that. Yeah. I love it.

- It's so cute. - It's so cute. - He's completely unbothered. - Completely unbothered. - 'Cause they're not my friends. - The time of his life. - Why didn't everybody else come to your party? - And they're like, "No, 'cause these are my friends." And they're like, he's so comfortable with like, "No, these are actually the people who I wanted to show up, who I knew would show up for me." - When he said, "I have three really good friends." And he was so, he's like, "That's all I need." Basically like, how great is that? And they all came, they all showed up.

He was perfectly satisfied. Totally. It melted Rebecca and Jack and it melted me to watch too. I was like, oh, that's all, like that kind of contentment, like you can't teach that. No, you can't. That is who Randall is at his core. Yeah. And not to jump in and like take over this conversation, but the realization that that kind of spurned in me was like, oh, this episode is showing us like the beginnings of Randall.

who these children go on to be. That we see sort of illuminated in the rest of this episode and moving forward in the series. It was like, oh, Kevin is a ham who needs the attention and who's fighting for the girl. All through heart-melting moments. Yes, and Kate inherently, like, when dad used to be able to remedy whatever...

sadness and turn her front upside down that she was experiencing like this was a real visceral moment where that didn't work and probably would no longer work moving forward. He couldn't give her a shirt at the pool and make up some magical tale about where, you know, the story behind where the shirt came from and sort of like flip everything on its head. God, he tries. That voguing scene. It's beautiful. I was like, oh, this is the start of

Kate of unfulfilled Kate of of just this this deep and you see those flashbacks to the pool and all of these things that had her looking at the tag in her her shirt versus her mother's shirt it was just like oh wow this is a

a real pivotal turning point for all of these characters that I just, I was like, I was very struck by rewatching it. - For sure. I mean, there's also this idea going to that Kate scene with Jack in particular. I feel this as a parent. I'm wondering if you guys have gotten to this place. I think probably. You want to shield your kids from life, also recognizing that you can't.

Like one of the things, the lessons is sometimes you have to touch the hot stove to realize that it's hot. And like, we were like, don't touch, don't touch. But really they're not gonna get it until they experience it for themselves. You know what I mean? And that's the weird thing about being a parent is like you're trying to protect, but at the same time, you actually just kind of have to create the space. So like when you do learn that lesson, the fall isn't so bad and you recognize that you can get back up in life.

Yeah. Continues to move forward. With toddlers, it's literally the fall. I'm constantly like trying to let Aoife fall just enough. Yeah.

- To learn, please don't climb on that. - Yeah. - But also I'm catching her halfway down. - Yes, to not break something. - Yeah. - Real quick side story, because a great example of this. One of my best friends in the world, his name is Lamar Baker, and he is a judge here in LA. We went to Stanford together. He tells this story about he would wear a cape when he was a kid and he'd put this cape on and his mom would say, "What are you doing big guy?" And he's like, "I'm about to go flying."

And she's like, "Really? Where are you going to go?" She's like, "Ah, just fly around the cities from San Francisco. I'm going to fly around the city for a little bit and then I'll come home. I just feel like it's time for me to fly." He was like three or something. And she's like, "I can't wait to see, hear about your experience. Like do me a favor, like get on the couch and like fly around the apartment for me just a little bit so I know that you can handle it okay." And he's like, "Okay, fine." He got up on the couch, he began to fly, fall flat on his face and started crying.

And she said, "You know what? That's okay. That's okay. You keep practicing and one day I'm sure you get it. But just stay in here and do it first before you take it outside." All right, Mom. Hot take.

That's really good, isn't it? That's some parenting. Yeah, 101. Hall of Fame. I love that joint. I love that. I had to share that because I thought it was apropos to what we were going through right here. They all enjoy the birthday, right? Kate has all of her friends start to migrate towards Big Kev. Yeah. Because it's really interesting. When you see young Parker sort of holding court, like even me, the little girl inside me is like, I get it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

He's completely charming. - He's magnetic. - He's in his element, like he's holding court. - Yes. - Right? Then you see little moments like, 'cause Sophie is her best friend and you see moments of- - Which I had forgotten. - Which we, yes. - Yeah, I had forgotten that connection. - Easy to forget. And she's just checking him out like, "Okay, this is cool."

At the end, like Rebecca and Jack come over and like, "Hey, big guy, nobody's in your sister's party or whatnot. Like maybe you should let some of them go. Like Sophie's her best friend. Why don't you encourage her to go?" And he says with complete impurity, he says, "I can't. I love her." Boom. - And that was my crying moment for this episode. - Boom. And so let's tie it in to- - Present day. - Kevin, who goes out and has a day

Toby leaves his fiance, which is really cool, because she's going to go to this camp for weight loss, for health and fitness, et cetera. - An immersive experience. - An immersive experience. And so he's sort of in the city and he winds up hooking up with her brother and they just have a day kicking it. I'm always sort of delighted by Toby's excitement and proximity to celebrity. - Yes. - It is my favorite.

because it is so real. When I go home, like all the stories of the people ask and like the sheer giddiness of it all, you encapsulate all of it.

- Delightful. - And there's a celebration that he has that has no shame. - None. - But that is, he walks the line to where it's like, in my opinion, like my dad. Here's what my dad likes to do. He likes to follow me when we're in public, maybe like five or six feet behind. And if he sees anybody go, "Is that, is that?" He goes, "It is."

It is. We're all in the same family. It is. We're all in the same family. And will sometimes call me back. Totally. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Come on back. Totally. And Toby has the same kind of like, he's in awe. I love your dad. That this is a thing, like that. He gets to be around Kevin. And how different Kevin's life is. Yeah. And real quick before we get into the storyline, I don't know if you guys noticed my hair in this scene. It's all messed up.

Is it? Is it? I remember sitting in the makeup chair being like, Toby's into this day and he's trying really hard. And I have so little hair, but I like gelled it. And it made me laugh that like, he like tried to like, like go just take a peek at the scene where they go to that bar, the rooftop bar in the middle of the day. And my hair is like must like Toby was like,

Ready to go out. He put some product in. And when I saw it, it made me laugh. I will check for it on my next viewing of it. It's clearly not that noticeable because you watched the episode and it went right by.

But sometimes the thing that mean the most to us, there are our own little secrets. There's a few coming up. There's also like when you watch a show with the makeup artist, all they talk about is makeup. Oh, yeah. You know what I'm saying? You watch it with like stunt coordinators. Anyway. This is also the first time that Justin and I had been alone together.

- Like in these scenes. And we had a real hard day. - 'Cause you're cracking each other up constantly. - And you can see it in the coverage 'cause they're editing around like me. - You laughing, him laughing. - There was like a whole moment where both of us would be like, "Okay, stop. We're gonna focus it up." Because he just, I don't know, there's a twinkle in his eye. - Yes, there is. - Oh, there is. - When he gets super sincere, that just gets me back. - Pickles you? - Yeah.

and and i'm also just like like this with him and he's like getting me yeah i'm at a good i love the line too that he had never seen notting hill what what more more we learned about toby just his love for romantic rom-coms so this is it because what toby is expecting and what kevin has to give him are completely two different things kev is trying to figure out

And he's like, you know, there's these two women that, you know, whose company I both enjoy and I kind of feel like I keep messing it up or whatnot. And you're like, hey man, you've come to the king of romantic gestures. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Like I got your back, right? ♪ I don't know much ♪ ♪ But I know how to love you ♪ - But I know how to do a romantic gesture. ♪ And that may be all I need to know ♪ Had to finish. - Lawsuit.

- Definitely can't clear it. - They'll be like, "What are they singing?" - It's unrecognizable. - And so you come up with this thing, it's like, look, you can't half-ass this. You can't come up to any person. It has to be the love of your life, right? You get three sentences. It's imminent. - What are they? - One shot. What do you wanna say to this person? - Do not miss your chance to love. - You know what I'm saying? That's it. We can say that much and clear it.

And so we're wondering who this person is. Who is he going to choose? - Because he immediately knows. He's like, I know, I know who it is. And you're like, oh, is it Sloane? - Yeah, is it Sloane? Is it Olivia? - Olivia, yeah. - I was like, please don't let it be Olivia. At that point in time, I was like, if you go back to her again, I, Brandon will come and be like, hey, stop. - More That Was Us after these words from our sponsors.

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So finally we see him go up to a door and he knocks on it.

And it's someone that we haven't met at this point in time in our life, but it ties to the past because we know that it's Sophie. Do we know that it's Sophie? Not yet. At the end of this scene, he says her name. Yeah. Right. And in the early birthday scenes,

somebody calls Sophie by her name. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - But you would really have to be- - We haven't made that connection. - You would really have to be paying attention to the kids scene. - Right. - To know. 'Cause I think it is Parker who says it, right? Something about Sophie or- - Or Kate maybe. - Or Kate too. - Sophie's here. - Sophie's here, that's what it was. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The name gets thrown out a couple of times. But then Justin Hartley as Kevin Pearson,

proceeds to deliver like one of the greatest run on sentences in the history of English grammar, because he says it all and he'll hit a and, you know what I mean? - And he does the punctuation so that his three sentences don't run out. - Comma, colon. - Parentheses, you look great.

Close parentheses. Yeah. And before we got to this episode, Chris and I were just saying, because now this character is introduced and this actor, Alexandra Breckenridge, I have a crush. I think she's one of the most adorable, sweet, grounded human beings and sort of like a wonderful choice to, like it's easy for Sterling to root for Kevin and Sophie because she's great. Right.

- Yes. - Right? We find out then too also that they were married. So we never knew before. - Yeah, lots of information in this scene. - Lots of information. What is my ex-husband doing here and dah, dah, dah. And you're like, oh. - Haven't seen you in 12 years. - Haven't seen you in 12 years. - My note just says Breckenridge is a treasure. - That would be on the DVD box set. - Yeah.

So it's our introduction to her, but you instantly, because of the way that it's set up in the past, you're like, I want to see more. Yeah. Who is this person? He was married? Yeah. What happened to the marriage? Like all these things sort of pop up and you're like engaged. Okay. Does anybody have Alex Breckenridge's, we should just call her.

- Let's just call her on the phone. - Just cold call her? - Just cold call her. - I can get it. I'll get it. I'll get it. We're Instagram-biting. - Sterling has the capability. - We'll have her on the podcast. - I love her. - We'll have her on the podcast. - Oh my gosh, she has a podcast. I'm sure she would come on our podcast. - Absolutely. - Have you been invited? I haven't been invited. - No, no, I haven't been invited. I just follow her on social media. - Call her. - Yeah. - We're fracking rich. - Me too. - Kate.

meets with the doctor at the beginning of this episode. Yes. The doctor's the one who says, have you considered an immersive experience? Instead of surgery. So she fails on the surgery. Yeah. Instead focuses on this camp upstate. Right. Still in New York, obviously, because Toby's been recovering. They're still in the East Coast. Yeah. And they go to the, I wrote like fiance, exclamation point, exclamation point. Because even though it was discussed in the,

two episodes previous, not in 12, but in 11. I was like, "Oh yes, they did discuss that." - A technical proposal. - A technical proposal. There was no ring. There was none of like the pomp and circumstances normally around that. But nonetheless, it's beautiful and they're both very excited. - So she goes away to this camp. - She goes away to the camp. - And this is where we meet, or she meets Adam Bartley.

- Duke. - Who plays Duke. - Duke. - Not a fan. - So not a fan of Duke. - No, Adam was lovely, I think. - Adam is a lovely dude. - 'Cause Duke is a dick. - Yes. - Duke, that is how you spell it. You spell Duke. - D-I-C-K. - D-I-C-K. - Yeah, not a fan. I was just sort of like, wow, I don't like you. - It's interesting too, because like,

Chrissy Metz is so transparent that like anytime he said a line to her, Chrissy would be like, she'd be like,

"Why are you talking to me like that?" - Yeah. - Yeah. - She was so offended. And I was offended for her too. - Absolutely. - I was like, "How wildly inappropriate." - Yeah. - And I'm not sure if it was this episode, I think it's a later episode. - Yeah. - We come to understand-- - He gets even wild, more wild. - He's more wild, but we understand the root of his entitlement, shall we say? - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - Before we get too far into her experience at the immersive experience, there's a short driving scene

where we're going to the camp. And we were up in Griffith Park somewhere shooting, driving around with the whole crew, spent the whole day up there. And we're driving around in this van

i think the show was sponsored by chevy right yeah i think you're right yeah yeah yeah yeah and and and chrissy and i were sitting in this car that we were like this is a nice car it was the first car i ever sat in that had cooled seats oh yeah and chris chrissy and i were both running hot it was like middle of summer and like you're in a suit and i'm in the suit and it's just hot and we're trying to sweat and

and we're driving up and down this mountain, you know, and arguably one of the hottest neighborhoods in, in, in LA. And, and,

Every take, we are rolling the windows all the way down and then rolling them back up. And we go to reset and the camera, what do they call it? The French over? - Yeah. - Where you shoot over somebody from behind. And so when you're watching a television show and you see that the camera person is sitting in the back seat, 'cause there's only so many ways to shoot people in a car, in cars. There's disappearing headrests. There's all kinds of stuff.

So Yasu is sitting behind Chrissy shooting me and we go to reset the vehicle. All the windows are down and Yasu and I go to roll all the windows up.

and have accidentally started rolling the back windows instead of the front windows. - Crunching a camera. - And the camera is sticking out the back window. And Yasu is our director of photography. - Yeah. - Very talented. - The team cinematographer. - Very, very soft-spoken. - Yes. - That's inappropriate. - Hey, there you go. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - He's a soft-spoken man. - Yeah, absolutely. - All I hear is, "Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey."

And then a window explodes. Shatters, I remember this story. What? The back window of the car explodes all over Yasha. Oh, gosh! I remember this, Chris. Because I was just holding the lever. Just like... And he's going, hey, hey, hey.

And then just safety glass rains down on the director of photography. Did he get hurt? No, no one was hurt. Those windows, they break into little tiny pieces. Yes, during crashes. The camera was fine. He was fine. I remember hearing this story. Did you hear what Chris did on set today? I assume they had some explaining to do when they returned the vehicle. Oh my goodness. Yeah.

- Okay, I'm good. - Anyway, so-- - No one was hurt. - Yes. - No one was hurt. - I digress, I digress. - That's important. It would have been a better story if someone had been, but unfortunately-- - These, you stop. So her whole experience at the camp, like you see like there's some positive things that are coming from it. The vibe seems pretty solid.

for the most part, like it's a holistic sort of thing. - She's a big suspect though. - She's suspect, right? But they're talking about, she's like, "Well, where's the gym? Like what's gonna happen? Like when do we get it in?" - She was ready for like Biggest Loser, I think. - Exactly, but she's like, "No, it's not just that, you know, you get to be in tune with nature and sort of like, what is it that's underneath

the weight, what is it that's keeping you in this place so that you sort of address not just physically, but holistically. And I was like, okay, I like that, that's cool. We meet Duke, he sort of flirts with her in a really weird, nasty way. - Aggressive. - I don't like that. I don't like that, you need to back up. - They wrote him hard. Like the writers made this guy.

- He was coming for her. - I mean, it was like a real juxtaposition to Toby as well. - Very much so. - Like, okay, this is like-- - 'Cause it was almost like, will she go for the bad boy sort of thing? - Yeah. - You feel like, you know? - Yeah, the sort of tortured bad boy who sees her, who calls it like it is. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - You know? - I feel like that bad boy is-- - Was real good with horses.

The bad boy thing is more appealing to the younger ladies, isn't it? Like, I think once you get grown, you're kind of like, "Nah, I've already done that." - There wasn't as sexy indifference as they say about this guy. Like he was just kind of mean. So I didn't, I was like, "He's a bad boy because he's rude."

Like he didn't. That's what Mandy, were you a bad boy kind of guy? Sure. Yeah. Yeah. But like not, I did. I never went for anybody. I think that was like outright mean. That's like, that's not sexy. It's like, yeah.

- She described bad, we said bad boy. I clocked this, Mandy Moore said sexy indifference. - Okay, I clearly went for narcissists. Unpack that as you will. - We don't have to go too deep into it. - Yeah, I went for narcissist bad boy. - I was recently on another podcast called Broad Ideas and they talked about things that were attractive to them and my response was talent. Like I find talent very sexy. - Me too, oh sure, sure. - And both of the hosts were like essentially meanness

- They were like, yeah, it like, but not, I don't think like Duke meanness. - No, no, but there is this thing about negging that pulls people in sometimes. And it's like, I used to get caught in the good guy trap all the time. Oh, you're like a brother. Oh, you're like a friend. And then you do a little bit of negging and it sort of creates mystery. Like I don't like playing these games. - Women do it too. - Do they? - Yeah, yeah.

- My advice to any young woman out there would be like, you want the good guy. - You want the good guy. - That is real partnership. That is longevity. - You heard it here, folks. That was us. You want the good guy. - And also there aren't any out there.

Good luck finding them. That's the goal. Good luck. Manny Moore's got the last one. So the one thing that I really do remember in this thing is that the drum circle, right? Yes. It was a real pivotal moment. She comes into the circle and, you know, she's and the instructor's like, you know, let it out, you know, stay on the beat and da da da da. And like you feel like this sort of compulsion. And it's interesting thing because percussion does have this sort of like

primal thing that it can bring out of you. Like you see it in church, you see it in ceremony, like the drum pulls things up that other instruments don't in a certain way. And so she starts going and she's going hard on the drum, ba-da-da-da-da-da-da. And then we go into this montage in her head and we go to the funeral. - Yes, we start to get that. The funeral flashbacks. - We see his urn.

Yeah. We see a pamphlet from the funeral with a picture of Jack. That's right. With a mustache. Yeah. Which still is open-ended, could be a picture from a younger time. Sure. But as the montage progresses, and I will interject with the piece of score here from Sid, the first time we hear that, oh.

- Yeah. - Oh, like that Jack theme and dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - It's just like there is something so compelling about it. - Yes. - And we come over the course of this montage as it goes a little deeper to see flashes of the teenagers. - Yeah, that's right. - And it's like,

Oh, I've got chills watching it. I was like, okay, we've pinpointed a real moment in time. Like Jack passed and these guys, we've met these characters. We've met this age group. Yeah, right. And holy cow, like how does it happen? When does it happen? Which means it's coming soon. Which means it's coming soon. Like we've been introduced to this storyline and this timeline. And then when Kate...

lets out that guttural scream when Chrissy lets out that guttural scream it just really took me back yeah me too yeah and then again a testimony to Mets she just yeah she's in it she's in it like I would say that more than anybody else Chrissy doesn't really act

Chrissy is. - Feels, yeah. - Chrissy is, like it's all just- - On the surface. - Right on the surface and permeates through her whole being. - She accesses. - Yes, she does. - Yes, yes. - She does, she absolutely does. And so I was like, okay, so there's things to come, right? There's things that she's processing still clearly. And maybe she wasn't even fully conscious of it until that moment, you know what I'm saying?

- It's now a good time to surprise Mandy? - I think it's a great time to surprise Mandy. - I mean, since we're talking about Jack. - He's here. - He's here. - Here he is. - He's with us. He's with us. So someone from my crew for the new show, 'cause a lot of our crew carries over from "This Is Us," was like somebody, we were taking things to auction, and for some reason, this didn't feel like the right piece to auction off, and so I thought it might be good with you guys in your home.

- Wow. - That's it. Like that is- - So for anyone not watching on YouTube right now, what we have in front of us

are the ashes of Jack Pearson. That's right. That's wild. Right. That's a wild piece of memorabilia that I don't think any of us really thought about. No. When things were up for grab at the end of the show and people were like, what do you want? I mean, and Earn was not going to be top of mind. It feels a bit dark. Sure. I'm like, I want the moon necklace. There you go. Did you get it? I did. I did. You got the car? I got the car.

- Sully got the wagon here. What'd you get? - They didn't give me. - You didn't take anything? - Just a picture. - What picture? - It was like a family picture. - I took some family pictures too. - Of like the young kids and whatnot, because that's like a time capsule. - I wish I had taken more. - I do too. - To be honest. - I do too. - Like now I'm like, oh, they let me go through on my wardrobe. - Yes, I did go through the wardrobe. - I took a few pieces of wardrobe as well. - Yeah. - Yeah, there's some choice. - But I wish I had gone into Toby and Kate's house

there were a few things in there that I think about now that like were there from the, like there was a young Frankenstein poster. - I remember that. - That was in Toby's apartment that moved to all of their different houses that I was like, I would've hung that in my office. - Yeah, sure. - You know? - Yeah. - I feel you. - But now we have the urn. - But now we have JP. - So. - Right here. - Does he live here with us, Sterling? - Wait, was that from our props department? - It was. Yeah, it absolutely was. It was very cool. So anyway.

That's sort of, anything else in that storyline with Kate? - With Kate? I believe it's like, it kind of ends in this montage. - Yeah, it's a bit of a cliffhanger. - Yeah. - It is. - I will say that the instructor's response to her primal scream was like, "Bro, isn't that what we're here to do?" Like she screams and he goes, "You okay?" I'm like, "Yeah, this is what you just asked us all to do."

Is to go to this place. Yeah. Yeah. You all right? No. No, I'm not okay. I'm screaming. Why do you think I'm here? I'm screaming. I'm having a fully immersive. An immersive experience. From my home. Let's go to. William and Randall. William and Randall. Last time we saw William.

And this was really, he was talking about how the medicine's not working, not feeling better. He says, "Do you want to stop the chemo?" He says, "Yeah." He says, "Okay."

So next time we see him, like he seems full of energy, vibrant, bouncing off the walls. And Beth, because her father passed away from cancer, goes, "That's the chemo bump, right?" Like once you go off the chemo, you have this sort of renewed sense of energy, vim, vigor, et cetera. So that's all really cool. First time we've kind of been introduced to maybe the history of Beth's grief. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. Yes, it is. Small seed planted that gets watered and germinates a little bit later on in the course of the series.

Randall is dealing with things at work. There's a new person introduced, a brother by the name of Sanjay, sometimes Sanjay, depending on how Tyler likes to pronounce his name. He'll say Sanjay and Sanjay, which I find like the definition of privilege. Just say it however you want to, sir.

- Yeah, don't worry about how it's actually pronounced. - Don't worry about it, 'cause he says both pronunciations throughout the whole show. But this guy's clearly introduced as a rival to Randall. - Played by an actor named Hari Dhillon. Is that how you pronounce his last name? Dhillon? - Good dude, very cool. Great actor, great times. And it's the first time you sort of see like, okay, Randall's position of sort of like

alpha-ness in his arena is being threatened to a certain extent. - Yeah, 'cause Sanjay, I loved the attitude. He was just sort of so unbothered. Like, "I love the work. "I'm just here to do what I do." And it was Randall that just immediately was like-- - Brings out a different side of Randall. - Yeah, that we've never, and never met this color before. - Yeah. - So while things are happening, William comes to visit him at work.

And he's like, hey, what are you doing here? He's like, yeah, man, it was a beautiful day. Just thought I'd be out taking some sunshine. Does he have his hat on now? Yeah. Whatever. I wanted to go. He wanted to go shopping. Yeah. Did he want to go shopping specifically for glasses or he just wanted to go shopping? I'm trying to remember. I think he just wanted to go shopping. Glasses was the first stop. He wanted to go shopping because he just wanted to have a day with his son. And so I'm like, okay, you know, I got something I got to take care of. But how much time do I have?

Right. With this man. Yeah. And let me seize this moment. He came to visit me. Let me make myself available for him. We go shopping. He's looking at these sunglasses and he's looking through many different pairs. And Randall is attempting not to Randall out because he's like, look, old man, I appreciate you want to spend time, but I do have things I need to do. Sure. So he finally picks the glasses. I think you look great. Whichever ones you pick are going to be fantastic. We got one more stop to make.

And he wants to go get an egg cream. Right? And he's like, okay. The oldest drink in history. Which has neither egg nor cream in it. What is it? It's like a float. Isn't it? Kind of. We just talked about egg cream on the other podcast.

Didn't we? That came up. Did it? Yes. Egg cream beverage. Let's see. Egg cream recipes. What you got? No. No. Egg cream. What the? Google. Google shows some weird stuff too. What is an egg cream? I don't need to know anybody's fetish for. I just was curious. Egg cream is a cold beverage consisting of milk,

carbonated water and flavored syrup. - No. - Typically chocolate or vanilla. - Thank you. - As a substitute for an ice cream float. - It's like a float. That's what I thought. - Yeah. - Yeah. You never had a root beer float? - I've had a root beer float, but I'm sorry, milk and carbonated water. - But with the flavor mixed in, it's almost like a chocolate soda with the ice cream sort of thing. - Melted ice cream. - When the stock market is crashing.

- You need anything. - You do the best you can with what you got. - You will mix anything. - Got it, got it, okay. - To raise your spirits. Hey, what if we put milk in this fizzy water? - There you go. - But calling it an egg cream feels-- - It doesn't sound delightful. - Are you ready for the least appetizing part? - Yeah. - Ideally, the glass is left with two thirds liquid and one third foamy head.

I'm not touching that. There we go. I'm not touching that. There's a lot of ways to describe the name. The drink contains neither eggs nor cream. There you go. I knew that part. That is some terrible marketing. I'm not touching that last part about the foam. There's a reason it's not on a lot of menus. There's a reason it didn't survive the Great Depression.

But it's William's favorite drink. It's William's favorite drink. You catch them in the car and he's like, William, can I ask you a question, man? Like we went to like 59 different places so you could find the egg cream. One of them didn't have the right syrup. One of them didn't have the right thing. Yeah. Because most people didn't know what it was. More That Was Us after this short break.

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It all comes together. He's like, hey, man, can you pull over right over here? So they pull over and he's like, he puts on his sunglasses. Oh, because he hasn't taken a drink of his egg cream yet. He says, why are you not drinking it? Why are you not drinking it? And he says, because it's not the right time. Not the right time.

So he pulls over, he puts on his sunglasses, he puts in his straw, takes a sip of his egg cream. He sort of like sits back in the car. Oh, it touched my soul in such a delightful way. That beautiful man just relishing his moment. It's like, I always wanted to drive a fancy car. You know, I wanted to know if I could drive your car. And he's like, you want to drive my car? And he's like, yeah. I was like, all right, man, go ahead. And he's like, well, that's the problem. I don't know how to drive. Yeah.

Always lived in big cities, just took the bus, et cetera. And it's nice to see, and it is a reminder to me that in the midst of the cacophony of life, really all there is is the here and now. Yeah. My dad is asking me to teach him how to drive. Okay. Yeah. Let me take a breath and honor this request. And Randall gets to have that moment. Yeah.

for the rest of his life. And it reminds me of how sometimes- - And you get to have that moment. - Yeah. - Sterling. - Sterling. - For the rest of your life. - I do indeed. Because it's easy to rush through stuff, guys. I'm sure we're all guilty of it at different points in time. And it was a reminder. This was one of those things where Randall was reminding Sterling like, bro,

When all this stuff is happening in your head, all you have to do is focus on what's in front of you right now. The next moment will take care of itself. Honor what's happening right now. What a delight to drive in the car, remembering doing the scene.

Because to a certain extent, he kind of fooled me. I was like, can Ron drive? I mean, he's a New Yorker. He's a New Yorker. So he got behind the wheel a little bit. And I was like, all right, check your mirrors. And it was like, Brown would be like, hey, bro, I need you not to hit anything. They gave us the bins. And we still black. They will get rid of this car. We already shattered a window on one of the cars. Some doofus.

Broke a window. But just getting a chance to see and experience his delight of wheeling around in that car, being the cool dude that he is, is...

It's one that I like. He like slides down in the seat. He gave a beautiful story to give context about his childhood at a record shop in Memphis where he grew up. And just like the coolest guy in the neighborhood was the guy with the great car. He had his sunglasses on. He was sipping his favorite drink. And William said, you know, I always admired him. I always wanted to have a moment like that in my life. And then he was living it. And then he got his moment.

- Yeah. - So also in this, the seeds are planted of chemo is stopped, story point, right?

Sanjay sort of like doing his thing at work and sort of watching how Randall is sort of navigating all the things that are transpiring in his life because it's a color that we haven't seen like you guys said before that starts to play out starting starting to sense how overwhelmed yes Randall is yeah like the tension of life is getting to him yeah in a way that like

We've always known Randall to be someone who is adequately prepared for anything, who's the cool dad, the cool husband. He's always got the answers. Like, he is a rock. He is solid. And to watch somebody start to falter a little bit is...

Do you stabilize it? For the people who probably, who binge, it'll be easier to remember because it's in 102 when Beth says to William that my husband's sort of weakness is his perfection or pursuit of perfection. And like my man drove himself blind. He could not see. Right. Right. When my daughter was in the midst of the pregnancy. Right. Yeah. So it's sort of an echo back to that.

Is there anything else we need to sort of grasp in this one? As we start to watch more and more of these episodes in a row, I really don't know how people binge this show. Like, to watch multiple episodes in a row is such a roller coaster for me of just ups and downs. It's so much information to take in. And, you know, I was saying this to someone earlier, like,

we have the benefit of being the last vestige, perhaps, of the great network television drama, appointment television, if you will, of when the show was airing. Every Tuesday, you had to wait a whole week to see how things-- sort of where they picked up. And I feel like the way we all are used to consuming content now does a disservice to the content, you know? 'Cause it's--

We can watch eight episodes or 10 episodes or 12 episodes of a season of something over the course of a weekend and forget about it. So by the time the next season starts airing or is available or we're sort of talking about what we loved about the show, it all kind of blasts.

- That time to digest, discuss or whatever is removed from it. Like part of the experience of it is being able to share it with other people. And that sort of cements things in a way that binging does not lend itself to. - Which is why there's this rush to binge.

It's because everyone's doing it and you want to be a part of that conversation. They're trying to catch you. And you want to listen to the reports and all these things. And it occurs to me like most TV shows are a moment in time. Yeah. Right. It starts here and ends here. But what you're getting with this show is several lifetimes. Yeah. From beginning to end. Yeah.

Which is, like you're saying, so much information to take in. And it's a strange mirror to hold up to an audience. Exactly, because it's like we're not only left to think about this family and their history and their choices, it inevitably holds that mirror up for us to think about our own life. So it's like that much more information to process. Yes.

So I agree with you. I don't know how anybody could binge this show rightfully and feel like, I don't know, like some semblance of sanity in the world. It's intense. It's intense. But please keep watching. Obviously. Just do it week by week with us. Week by week with us. Yeah. That works. It's digestible. It's doable. Very feasible. And all through this whole episode, there's the other underlying theme of do we want another kid?

Oh, with Jack and Rebecca. Yes. Oh, thank you. Which is such an interesting question to just be like peppering in through all this. And the idea that like, you know, initially Rebecca shuts it down halfway through the episode in the midst of throwing nine-year-olds a birthday party. Right. She's like,

After she's, it's Randall and his perfection and the answer of how stable and content he is. She's like, we did that. Like, obviously there's nature at play, but there's also nurture. And like, we helped create that. And like, why would we?

deny ourselves the opportunity to maybe do that again. Like you definitely see the allure. - She starts to entertain it, whereas in the beginning of the episode, she's like, man, you must be out of your mind. - You're out of your mind. - When it's hard, absolutely not. And when you really look at all the joyful parts of it, she starts to have like a, "Oh yeah."

Yeah. And then, of course, by the end of the episode, it's like, we are so in over our heads. I don't know what would make us even consider that an option. But then they talk about, well, maybe we'll just have a dog. Jax is like, maybe we can just start with a dog. And you're like, no, we're not having a dog. But a dog? But it comes back, ladies and gentlemen. It comes back. Should we take a break before we get to our fan segment? Yeah.

All right, we are back with today's fan segment. We asked you, our listeners, what This Is Us means to you and why.

We have received a massive amount of fan mail. And again, if you would like to reach out to us, you can send us an email at thatwassuspod at gmail.com. Or you can call the emotional support hotline at 412-501-3028. Nice. But today, we are going to read one of the stories that came to our email. We've received a ton. And today, we're going to share a very special one. All right. All right. Let's do it. Let's see. Here's one.

Cold read. Let's see how it goes. Hey, y'all. My name is Sarah. No, no, no. Come on. Give me some. Hey, y'all. Stop. Stop. Hey, y'all. My name is Sarah, and my husband Cameron and I just welcomed twin boys, Jordy and Waylon, about six weeks ago. We also have a three-year-old little boy, Crosby. Nice name. I love it. Which means we have our own big three that we were never planning on having, but can't imagine life without them now.

My hubs and I have been watching This Is Us to stay awake during those brutal night feedings. And it's been a big source of comfort for me.

You all are parents, so you know the unique pain of sleep deprivation and what it can do to someone. It's so hard in those moments to remember how short the sleepless newborn season is. I'm personally loving all the flashback scenes to when the big three were babies or watching Kevin be a parent to twins. Watching the show always reminds me that one day these three boys I have will be grown and gone. And it helps to see his style.

And it helps to see a future where they are hopefully each other's greatest advocates and protectors, even if they butt heads and don't see eye to eye, much like Kevin, Kate, and Randall. Unfortunately, that's about all I've got time for because someone is crying, but hopefully you all feel encouraged to know that the show continues to bring so many people joy and comfort. I've no doubt it will live on for generations.

Keep being wonderful people, Sarah G. She also gave us a picture of her children. Oh, come on. Of that delightful big three. There's their big three. That's pretty cool. She's got three boys. Wow, she is in it with six-week-old twins. Just sending an email.

to a podcast, to finding the time and energy. - I hope she's patting herself on the back, yeah. - It's impressive. - These names, Jordy, Waylon, and Crosby, there's music. - Oh yeah, that's immediately what I thought. - I would say so. - Who's Jordy? Like if it is music. - Jordan Knight from New Kids on the Block. - Clearly. - Obviously. - So clearly. - She's like, I gotta honor that side and Waylon Jennings. - Jordan Knight. - And. - The Stills and Nash. - Yeah, exactly. - No, no, no, Bing Crosby.

That's right. Oh, I love that. It's the gamut of musical tastes. She hit me in the feels a couple of times. There's something that I've been feeling recently. My son's turning 13, and I say to myself, I have five years left.

Oh, Sterling. I have five years left and he's out of the house, question mark. Thankfully, hopefully not. Like this sort of weird sort of feel of like, oh man, so much of my life revolves around the presence of this dude and his brother. Like when he's gone, life will fundamentally be something different. My mom used to tell me all the time, she'd say, 18 years goes by real fast. Oh, I can't imagine. Yes, mom.

Real fast, I'm like, "Oh, mom, I'm still here. I'm still around." I have now lived in Los Angeles for 18 years. I've lived in LA as long as I lived in St. Louis, Missouri.

It is now like the place that I've lived the longest. So it's like, just like that. Sterling, I already think about the fact that my son will be starting like a full day at preschool in the fall. And I'm like, that's it? Yeah. That's it. I've lost him. Like in theory, like now he will never not be in school. Sure. For the rest of his life. Sure.

And it is a wild concept. Ryan cried first day of preschool. Oh. And he like ran in, bye mom. Yeah, same, same. Unbothered, not emotional, which is lovely. But yeah, in its own way, I'm like, okay, thank goodness I have two more to like hold on to really tight. The feeling, Bear goes to school all day. And the feeling of that I cannot wait to get him there.

I cannot wait to get him there. And as soon as I walk out of the gate and he's there, I'm like, go back, just go back in. Just go back in and get him. Yeah, there's no role. And go do something. They can't keep him. Like, I can do whatever I want. And like, it's a lot. And people like love to throw these things out. And I hear it in interviews or podcasts, but someone said, it may have said this on here before, but like, someday you will pick up your child for the last time. Yeah. And you won't know it. Yeah.

- You stop, you stop Sullivan. - That devastates me. - And that is horrifying to me. I told you about pushing on the swings, right? - You did. - Somebody tried to teach Bear how to pump his legs so he could get the swing going. I'm like, stop it, stop it. I'll push him. - No, no, no, no, no. - I will push you on the swings. I'm gonna convince him that riding swings at 17 is totally fine and dad can push you on the swings. - Dad can push you. - Dude, I was just watching on Mandy Moore's IG, watching Ozzy just run into the, and just so she could pick him up

and hold them up in the air. And I was like, I- - You remember those days. - I remember those days. I still have this thing. I don't know if this is particular to me as African American, but you let me know. Moisturization is very important to brown. I don't believe in dry skin. - Oh no. - So the kids will get out of the bathtub or whatever, and they're supposed to moisturize themselves. But every once in a while, even the 12, almost 13 year old will lay down and say, "Can you do my back?"

And he's just buck booty ass naked. Big old muscles and stuff. And I just knead into him. I like massage, like everything, like all up and down. And he just lays there just delightfully happy. Like, oh, thanks dad. Cause that is your baby. That's my baby. Forever. Yeah. One day I won't get to do it. Aoife's just starting to get verbal and, and, and walking up and putting both arms up in the air and saying, hold me. Oh,

And it's, I can't, I just can't. - It's too much. This is so beautiful. It's so great. We've like helped birth a generation of new children in the world with fans that love the show and watch the show and we're keeping them company and showing them how to do it. - Let's talk about sleep deprivation. It's interesting.

She was talking about these early days and I'm sure you remember them from-- 'cause when we first had kids, it was the pandemic. Oh, yeah. And it was kind of the-- the upside of being quarantined was nowhere to be, nowhere to go, no one to see, and up all night, and that's fine. - Because-- - What other plans do you have? And so we'll be up and then we'll sleep and then we'll be up and then we'll sleep during the day 'cause we have nowhere to be, nothing to do, no one to see.

- I didn't have that. - And so the sleep deprivation took on like a weird psychedelic sleepover. - Did it really? - For me and Rach anyways, it was just kind of like ever ongoing. - You guys had Bear though a bit before I did. I was in work mode. We were back, we were back. It was like February of 2021. - 'Cause we got delayed only like four months. - Yeah, yeah. - Oh, that's right.

So you... I vaguely remember that, but I also remember being like a zombie. Ha ha ha!

- I recently heard a Navy SEAL interviewed and they said that the worst form of torture around is sleep deprivation. - Yeah. - Went and got a chance for David Blaine to do magic for me in person when I was at the upfronts for Disney. And he's a fascinating, he just walks around with a deck of cards and he just does things. I say, "Bro, you do crazy stuff all the time. Is there anything that you would not do for fear of your own health and safety?" He said, "Sleep deprivation."

That's the one thing that I think that I wouldn't do because it's not worth it. My man walks on coals. Yep. He will hold his breath inside of an ice tank or what have you. Because what it does to people psychologically can be

- It can. - Yeah. - It can. And for anything that I said to Ryan Michelle Bathay in the midst of when she asked me to wake up and change the baby at three in the morning, I apologize. I love you. You're a good person. And I know you- - You've sailed through it. - We're doing okay. - I think you're on the other side. - We're on the other side. - I definitely had a couple of those moments in the middle of the night. - You waking me up now? - Yeah. - That were just like,

delirious and yelling. Totally. Because here's what would happen with me and Rachel. We had all kinds of white noise going on. And Rachel would like to whisper to me in the frequency of white noise. So white noise would be on. And I'm like, what? What? What? What?

In the frequency of my nose. Two o'clock in the morning trying to whisper it.

Whispering over white noise and it just comes out as white noise. Oh, man. I don't know. Sleep deprivation is real. It's real. It's real. I'm happy that we were able to keep Sarah company through her sleep deprivation. Thank you for sharing the letter. Please send more. We love to hear from you. We may not be able to get to all of them, but we do the best that we can and we appreciate you. So that concludes this episode of That Was Us.

We'll see you all next time. Bye. That was us. That Was Us is filmed at The Crow and produced by Rabbit Grin Productions and Sarah Warehunt. Music by Taylor Goldsmith and Griffin Goldsmith.